The use of a choker-chain or collar is well known in the art of animal handling. It is especially associated with dog-training but is often relied on as an everyday accessory and, in the case of the larger and/or temperamental dog, may indeed be requisite to at least adequate control of the animal.
It is not uncommon that the ring comprising the live or running end of the choker-collar provides the primary hazard through which the animal is severely or fatally injured.
Even when the choker-collar is properly fitted and has the proper hand or construction, so that by gravity the collar opens to its largest diameter with the running and stationary rings being relatively close to the animal's body, the ring at the live or running end of the collar presents a hazardous situation. Such a free-riding ring element may easily snag itself so that the collar then tightens with consequent severe or fatal injury to a panic-stricken animal attempting to free itself or to an animal propelling itself with force and stopped in midstride.
Such peril attendant use of the choker-collar has been recognized; see for instance the U.S. Pat. No. 3,701,339 to Kemmerling, issued Oct. 31, 1972, wherein a sleeve member is slidable to a position overlying the ring at the running end of a choke-collar. However, it is pointed out that patentee's sleeve member is not a reliable improvement since said member neither incorporates means whereby to be fixed in the safeguard position nor any means to inhibit sliding thereof to a ring-open location.